New Study Names Hippest City in America

It’s Somerville, Massachusetts. Sorry San Franciscans. You’ve gone yuppy gourmet and your coolest residents have moved to Oakland. New Yorkers? Your city is way too expensive for true hipness to flourish. Weirdos in Austin? Somerville’s got you beat on volume of both thrift shop and indie music purchases. Washington D.C.? You’re kidding, right? No one thinks Washington D.C. is hip.

Residents of Somerville spend more time in independent coffee shops than residents of any other city. Surprised, Seattle?* Residents of Somerville own more bespoke bicycles (and unicycles) than even the good people of Denver. And, sorry L.A. They know more about film, too. Residents of Somerville are most likely to accurately predict Oscar winners for every category from Best Picture to Sound Mixing.

What city has the highest ratio of adult sports league participation** to childhood sports league participation? Somerville! And what city has the highest incidence of ironic Superbowl parties? The ‘Ville again.***

I don’t live in Somerville but I keep seeing Facebook posts from friends there who have just come from a potluck dinner with the mayor or attended a Marshmallow Fluff Fest. Supporters of public transportation, rescue kittens and the arts dominate this fiercely vibrant city in Massachusetts. Yep. Somerville has out-Portlandia’d Portland.

Oh, yeah, and much of my book Drowning Cactus, due to be released this summer, is set there. It’s also set in Santa Fe and Tucson, but more about those places later.

Rock on Somervillians!

* The facts in this post may or may not be strictly statistically accurate but instead are based on standards methods of casual observation. Statistics are for nerds. Hipsters rely on bold inference.

** Think foursquare, hopscotch and competitive sidewalk chalking.

*** OK. I’ve never actually heard of a party like this, but if were to ever happen, I’m pretty sure someone in Somerville would host it.